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Tesco’s Chief Executive Dave Lewis will today call on the global food industry to be transparent and publish their food waste data.

Speaking in New York as the Chairman of Champions 12.3, Dave Lewis will call for action and announce that twenty seven of Tesco’s biggest suppliers, as well as Booker, who Tesco merged with earlier this year, will publish their food waste data for the first time.

It will also be revealed that ten of Tesco’s branded suppliers including Mars, Unilever and General Mills will commit to target, measure and act and publish their food waste data within the next 12 months.

Dave Lewis will say:

“Every year, a third of the world’s food goes to waste. That’s the equivalent of 1.3 billion tonnes of food being thrown away and we think that’s simply not right.

“We hope every country, major city and company involved in the food supply chain publishes their own food waste data, so that together we can take targeted action to reduce waste.

“We believe that what gets measured gets managed. Ultimately, the only way to tackle food waste is to understand the challenge - to know where in the supply chain food is wasted.”

Tesco became the first UK retailer to publish the amount of food wasted in its operations in 2013. The retailer is over 70% of the way towards its target that no food, safe for human consumption, goes to waste.

Tesco published figures for its Republic of Ireland and Central European businesses for the first time last year.

Notes to editors

Champions 12.3 is a coalition of executives from governments, businesses, international organisations, research institutions, and civil society dedicated to inspiring ambition, mobilising action, and accelerating progress toward achieving Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3.

Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 aims to: By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.

Dave Lewis will speak at a Champions 12.3 event in New York on Tuesday 25 September.

The 27 own label suppliers who will be publishing their data are:

A Gomez LTD

Espersen A/S

Allied Bakeries

AMT Fruit Ltd

Arla Foods

Bakkavor Group

Branston Limited

Cargill Meats Europe / Avara Foods

Cranswick PLC

dps

Froneri

Glinwell plc

Greencore

Greenyard Frozen UK

G's Fresh

Hilton Foods

Kepak Group

Kerry Foods UK & ROI

Moy Park

Muller Milk & Ingredients

Noble Foods Limited

Ornua

Premier Foods

Richard Hochfeld Ltd

Samworth Brothers Ltd

Seachill UK Ltd.

Yeo Valley Farms (Production) Ltd.

The 10 branded suppliers making UK or global commitments to target (publicly endorse & adopt Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 – to halve food waste in your operations by 2030), measure (calculate and publish data on the levels of food waste in your own operations by September 2019) and act (reduce food waste both in your own operations and from farm to fork) are: